Do You Really Know What Going Native Means?

[robert k]

It might be a form of sympathetic magic but I found that eating gristle and cartilege from animals seemed to make my knee injury heal faster and better, same thing with my elbow injury later on, eat the gristle from that steak or the whole boney end of a chicken leg, for me it worked better and cheaper than glucosamine and chondroitin pills.

 

Slightly off topic, to me going native is to adopt the ways, thinking and predjudices of those who surround you, which may be no worse than your own, only different.

Edited July 2, 2013 by robert k

[Thomas]

Oh! I thought "going native" ment living nude   :lol:

Guess what?  They LIKE those parts I mention.

Do you know what they put in the common western sausages?   :lol:

 

= (Almost) all they don't put in the more cost sausages...

[Thomas]

Dave Hounddriver, on 02 Jul 2013 - 04:58 AM, said: What about slurping soup from the bowl?   The rest of what you said works for me.    There are some very fine points to eating rice with fingers. 

I have no problem with the slurping (The traditional way of drinking coffee in Sweden was to por hot coffe at the plate to cold it down a bit and slurp it up.)

but I have trouble with eating from same plate.

[JJReyes]

A recent visitor to the Philippines thought it was funny how at a gathering several guests were eating pork adobo and rice using their fingers. I commented that Americans also eat with their fingers. His retort was, "Americans are civilized. We use a spoon, knife and fork." This was too easy. I pointed out you don't use utensils in eating the most popular dish, hamburgers. The burgers at one time were small so you can take dignified bites. Now the burgers are so huge you can't really bite without getting ketchup and other stuff all around your mouth. It's the same when eating french fries. KFC advertises, "Finger licking good." 

 

The Philippine etiquette includes short fingernails; wash your hands before you seat down at the table; use only your right hand; and food must never touch your palm. You can't use your right hand in serving yourself additional food. Usually, there is someone at the table or standing whose is not eating. The person's role is to use a large spoon to ladle food to your plate. Finger licking is a "No. No." even when the host purchases a bucket from KFC. 

[Thomas]

His retort was, "Americans are civilized. We use a spoon, knife and fork."

Well. American eating style is "uncivilized" compared to the European style     :)    (=swithing hand for the fork after cutting all. Posh European eating style is cuting bit by bit when it's time to put it in mouth.)  

(But I eat the American style myself.)

 

Don't most Americans use fingers too, when eating chicken clubs/wings/nuggets?    :no:

A recent visitor to the Philippines thought it was funny how at a gathering several guests were eating pork adobo and rice using their fingers. I commented that Americans also eat with their fingers. His retort was, "Americans are civilized. We use a spoon, knife and fork."

His COMMENTS are inpolitle UNCIVILIZED anyway...   :mocking:

[brock]

JJ I have never seen anyone sat or standing at the side of a table full of food not eating, Where did you get that from ?   :hystery:

[Thomas]

JJ I have never seen anyone sat or standing at the side of a table full of food not eating, Where did you get that from ?   :hystery:

That was tradition in Sweden just a few generations ago. A mother to an uncle of mine related by marriage, still had that habbit, but few others in her generation. I suppose it was more common among farmers than others, the farmers wife or a maid taking care of the men, when they come in to rest from work, and then they eat themselves, when the men go to work outside again.

[Jake]

Consumption of the local cuisine using your fingers takes a little bit of practice and a few embarrassing

moments (spilling rice all over your lap).  JJ mentioned using your right hand only - a long time ago, I

made a fool of myself while eating some chicken curry in a muslim community in Singapore.  I was using

my bathroom hand instead!

 

I slurp from the bowl directly.  In some Asian culture, burping out loud means to pay a compliment to the

host or chef.  I also notice a reversal where the local Pinoys use a knife and fork to eat a slice of pizza.

And finally from my mother....that pouring water with lemon to rinse your fingers over the empty plate is

a common practice.  

 

Bon appetit -- Jake 

[Dave Hounddriver]

But to really go native you have to try to maintain an appetite after smelling the dried squid cooking.

[JJReyes]

JJ I have never seen anyone sat or standing at the side of a table full of food not eating, Where did you get that from ?  

 

It's my polite, civilized way of saying there were servants around to serve food. Eating with our right hand fingers was only permitted during outdoor picnics. Fresh banana leaves were washed and spread on a table. The food was placed on the center section. Our individual plates were the inner banana stalk chopped in 12 to 15 inches length. 

 

Shortly after our arrival, my American bride was given a place of honor being someone new to the Philippines. They ceremoniously presented a small, suckling pig (milk fed by the mother) and placed it in front of my wife. In the Spanish tradition, someone started chopping the pig using the side of a eight inch plate. She screamed. Offers of taking the best part, which is the skin behind the head was met with a polite, "No thank you. I don't eat pork."

Edited July 2, 2013 by JJReyes